In our September 28 Facebook Live session, senior editor Mike LaSusa spoke with freelance journalist Nicholas Phillips about his recent investigation into the life of Dany Romero, and how Romero’s story illustrates the complexities of determining who is a gang member in El Salvador.

The conversation opened with Phillips explaining how Dany Romero first got involved with the MS13 in El Salvador, and how he began advocating for gang members’ rights while he was in prison for a murder that he says he didn’t commit.

In addition to other aspects of the investigation, Phillips and LaSusa discussed Romero’s rise to prominence in the international human rights community, as well as his designation as a gang leader by the US government and the charges subsequently brought against him in El Salvador, where he is now on trial.

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InSight Crime is a foundation
dedicated to the study of the principal threat to national and citizen security in Latin America and the Caribbean: Organized Crime. We seek to deepen and inform the debate about organized crime in the Americas by providing the general public with regular reporting, analysis and investigation on the subject and on state efforts to combat it.